January 10, 2012

I'm sitting in a hotel lobby where — beyond my control — CNN has been playing. I've been here for over an hour, and I'm reading and writing, trying not to be distracted by CNN, which is mostly covering the New Hampshire primary.

Remember that 11-question candidate matching quiz everyone took in one of your overnight cafe posts? You could be one notch to the right of Genghis Khan, or 3 to the left of Karl Marx, and you'd still end up with "Huntsman" in your top 3 -- they rigged it this way.

"Huntsman, huh? I'll have to give this fellow another look-see."

It would not surprise me a bit to see Huntsman run as an independent to split the Republican vote, if Paul doesn't. If Paul runs third party, then the Democrats won't have to run Huntsman and it will save them a little money.

But to be fair, I was recently (last week) in Utah and had some political conversations with some folks there. They seemed to have a very favorable opinion of Huntsman. They also seemed to be of the opinion that Obama sabotaged any chances he had at the White House by giving him that appointment to China. By accepting that appointment, Huntsman either had to remain there and sit out the election or give up the post and have to face voters who would feel he was somehow aligned with the Obama administration for having accepted the appointment.

crosspatch: "...Obama sabotaged any chances he had at the White House by giving him that appointment..."

That's the meme that the Democrats created and tried to sell in the run-up before anyone announced their candidacy. They pushed it so hard, despite the fact that this unknown RINO had zero support before this appointment, that the astroturfing was flagrant.

"That's the meme that the Democrats created and tried to sell in the run-up before anyone announced their candidacy. "

I was actually hearing that from people in Utah when he accepted the post. They said at the time that it looked like what Obama was doing was attempting to keep him out of the 2012 election. The man was amazingly popular in Utah and his policies were quite good for the state. Utah has a very low level of unfunded liabilities, for example, one of the lowest in the nation and is one of the most business-friendly states in the union.

My late wife's family is from there so I visit them from time to time when I take my kids to see their cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. and I get a chance to talk with them a bit. They are mostly conservatives. They feel Huntsman was a great governor and is getting a crappy deal just because he accepted that position with the administration.

I'm a Utahn and a fan of Huntsman. I'm hoping he surpasses expectations in NH and continues to campaign. I basically support what he stand for (there are exceptions) and I appreciate his lack of viciousness.

Failing that, he's the "moderate Republican" to take the McCain/Romney spot in 2016 after Obama gets re-elected. He'll be just the guy to reform single-payer, which is what Obamacare's instant failure will lead to. And we'll be told he's the electable one.

"They feel Huntsman was a great governor and is getting a crappy deal just because he accepted that position with the administration."

The problem, crosspatch, is that he did more than just 'accept.' He wrote gushing, fawning letters to Obama, praising him as a 'great leader' (as Mark O pointed out) and strapped on the kneepads as he gushed over Little Black Jesus' foreign policy vision. That doesn't sound like someone putting country before party to andswer the call of public service; it sounds like the act of a political weasel sucking up to the current sleaze in power.

Couple that with his dismissal of the GOP base as anti-science and his current whine that we need to return to a "sane" Republican party, Huntsman is doing nothing but cementing the image that he's the MFM darling - the nice, bipartisan "Republican" who'll grow in office.

CNN is the Brian Eno of news channels. You're not supposed to know what's actually on, but rather that, subconsciously, something is on, and that is comforting. If something of substance were on, the front desk would constantly be asked to change the channel. CNN just kind of blends into the background like Brian Eno at airports.

Also, if Huntsman were to actually become the Republican nominee, he would suffer a McCain Metamorphosis, going from the media's maverick, centrist darling to a rabid, Utah-Republican extremist. His name is Huntsman, after all. Very insensitive considering what happened in Tuscon.

The one thing I thought to be good about the Republican primary process so far is that each of the contenders had their day in the sun where the media and public attention focused on them. Huntsman may be the last one to get a shot. Obviously this is good for the media, but may be good for team red as well. Might get a few of these guys ready for 2016 or 2020.

Doesn't Huntsman own a chemical company? If Huntsman was in the lead or the nominee we would be hearing about all the slave labor employed to make polyurethane or all the cancer his company has caused etc...

NPR has been flacking for Huntsman for months. They'd do a short lead in on the primary race and then say "There's on candidate who's not giving up - Jon Huntsman was here in Pokipsie today meeting ardent supporters." Meaning, I guess, the media. Then they'd talk about him for three minutes.

One puff piece I can understand. But they've spent more time on him than all the others put together. I have to agree with Pastafarian - he's the Democrat in the race.

Huntsman's mistake was in believing the hype surrounding Obama after his election. He made the same miscalculation that Crist did and thought the President would remain popular and that he could leech some of that off of him (while also strengthening his foreign policy cred).

Imagine his horror when Obama's poll numbers crashed and he exposed himself as incompetent.

Now, such miscalculations happen to most politicians (see Romney) so it was not impossible for him to overcome it. The problem is that of the 3 methods for dealing with such screwups (accept and apologize, avoid and deflect, and attack the accuser) he chose the worst possible method in this situation.

He got pissy and decided to attack those who were criticizing him, the problem is that those people form the base. So he called them stupid or crazy in order to try and delegitimize their complaints only to be shocked that they didn't appreciate it.

If Huntsman mattered they would all (CNNNPRABCNBCCBSPBSMSNBC) hate him 24/7 until he stopped mattering. Look what happened to McCain when he became the nominee: 1. Hateshmearhatemisstatehate. 2. Lose. 3. Crankybutloveableelderstatesman.

I'm a Utahn and a fan of Huntsman. I'm hoping he surpasses expectations in NH and continues to campaign. I basically support what he stand for (there are exceptions) and I appreciate his lack of viciousness.

I am looking for pragmatism, more dialogue and less dogma.

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You are really supercharging Huntsman's candidacy with your cut and paste concern trolling

Why is Huntsman seen as a moderate? Based on his policy positions, he seems pretty conservative to me. On the other hand, he seems to be dispassionate and post-partisan in his demeanor. This apparently does not play well with those who want red meat, but it would seem to be an attractive trait for the same part of the electorate who voted for Obama because he appeared dispassionate and post-partisan in his demeanor notwithstanding being pretty far to the left.

I liked Huntsman's demeanor, his rational and focused answers to questions, his conservative principles, and his moderate and well thought out approach to social issues as well as foreign policy. I also found his website to be very helpful: http://jon2012.com/issues Finally, when I looked at his family I was delighted to see really nice, talented, intelligent, honest people. That reflects well on him. For me Huntsman comes across as a very honest and intelligent man. He's not a self-aggrandizing egotist like Gingrich, shifty like Romney, cagey like Paul, intolerant like Santorum, or sleazy like Perry.

As soon as Romney locks up the nomination, Huntsman will denounce the extreme turn his beloved Republican party has taken and will agree to replace Biden as the VP candidate on the Democrat's national emergency fusion ticket. At least, this is what will happen if Obama thinks he is still in big trouble at the time.

Outside of his family and the media, almost no one gives a shit about the Huntsman candi-duh-cy. No way a Republican that worked as a political appointee for Obama gets anywhere in the Republican primaries. There's probably 15 other shmucks running for the Republican nomination that no one cares about either.

They'd be better off covering the Cthullu candidacy, or Richard Nixon's head in a jar running again, or even the Pat Paulsen zombie candidacy. At least there might be some yucks with those stories.

Bender said...If Romney were not running, then the MSM and Republican Establishment would be pushing Huntsman as the "most electable" candidate.

==============Pity for you that Perry is a moron, Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann were half - crazed zealots, and Newt is tempermentally unfit to be President.

My advise to you is hold out. Don't vote! Then no matter who wins, you can bray about how litmus test pure you are that Republicans didn't give you your Perfect Candidate.

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It's funny how you complain about "purists" not seeing the forest for the trees when it's clearly you who can't.

We're on the edge of a fiscal and economic cliff and we're about to fall off. The entitlement boom will go bust and a lot of other things will go bust with it. Positioning yourself for gradual change 20 years down the line is worthless.

Can Romney save us from the impending disaster? Probably not. He hasn't shown a whole lot of signs that he even knows what's coming. I'll vote for him if it comes down to him and Obama without hesitation, but in a few years I think you'll be wishing for the intemperance of Gingrich in the white house.